


No Demon Or Angel

by MuscleMemory



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Coda, Comfort fic, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Making sense of it for myself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 11:34:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18777457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuscleMemory/pseuds/MuscleMemory
Summary: A short coda to the finale, about Jace, and Clary, and people coping/being there for each other, to make more sense of it and spend comfort to myself, and maybe someone else.





	No Demon Or Angel

**Author's Note:**

> This is in no way perfect, also I'm good with people liking and disliking the end. I get both to an extent. And I also get the show couldn't show these things, but they have to happen, for me at least. I felt really hollow and crushed when I woke up today, and this suddenly came to my mind and I wrote it down, and it could go many other ways, obviously, but it's one example of what I feel better with, especially knowing it will happen, and they all will get their happily ever after. In my world always.

He finds himself staring into the fire every night, and every night he manages to suppress the urge to get closer, succumb to the flames to replace the ailing of his heart with the burning of his flesh. 

He doesn’t feel the touch on his shoulder, or the calling of his name at first, only when the fingers press a little more firmly, only when he hears his voice right next to him.

“Jace? Jace, hey.” 

He startles, turns his head abruptly to stare up into his Parabatai’s hazel eyes, and exhales. 

“Sorry, I didn’t notice you.” He looks down, his body tense while trying to find composure, unwilling to let Alec sense the whole extent of his agony. 

Alec sits down next to him on the bed, his arm sliding around his shoulders, gently pulling until Jace’s body gives in and accepts his comfort. They’re staring into the fire, not speaking.

“You sure you don’t have somewhere else to be?” Jace has to say something eventually, all the ways he feels insecure, scared, and unworthy simmering just above the surface. 

Alec’s answer is as swift as it’s sure, like all the other times before. “No.”

His arms tighten around Jace, and that’s when he lets go of the tears and the breaths he’s been holding. The hardest thing he’s  _ ever  _ had to do is to keep holding on right now, and he really didn’t think he could do it, but after a couple of months of his family and friends sticking close by his side, encouraging, comforting, believing, he knows he will endure it, because there is still hope, as long as she’s alive.

And if there is one thing they are good at, it is fighting all the odds, coming out on the other side. 

“You know we won’t stop until we find a way.” Alec’s words don’t surprise him anymore, he told him right away that if it were Magnus, he would never stop to find a way to get him back. And though, Jace feels shattered, he doesn’t feel alone, and that might just be the difference it takes for him to get through this.

Jace wipes the tears from his face when Simon knocks on the open door and enters. He sits down on the floor in front of them, crossing his legs, his expression soft, understanding, struggling with his own pain, finding comfort in sharing it. 

“I just heard from Becky.” 

Jace sits up properly, all of his attention on his friend now, consoled by Alec keeping an arm around him. 

“Clary seems to be getting better now, accepting the loss of her mom and best friend, and that her amnesia stems from that. She told Luke she wants to try and get back into art school. She’s been painting a lot more again, and Becky says it’s helping her.” 

Simon’s gentle, yet sad smile, makes another tear spill from Jace’s eye, but there is a sense of relief, too. 

“Good, that’s good. At least Becky and Luke can be there for her properly.” He’s been checking up on her, unable to stay away, and her not knowing who he is, as much as it kills part of him, makes it easier in that way.

Simon nods. “It’s so hard to keep my distance, but after the risk Luke took to still be in her life, I can’t risk her seeing me not knowing what might happen. If I ever get to face that Raziel bastard-” 

“You and me, both.” 

Jace’s eyes spark golden, emitting danger and wrath that make Simon shudder, and happy that Jace hasn’t lost his fight, at all. He could have easily given up after all he’s been through, but he never has, and Simon’s taking courage and inspiration from that. 

Another knock on the door, and Izzy and Magnus walk in, giving Simon, and Jace who stand up, tight hugs. 

“And I will make sure she’s getting into any school she wants, not that she really needs my help with her skills, but some of these directors can be a bit… iffy.” Magnus gives him a meaningful look, and Jace can’t but smile a little, giving him another grateful hug.

He knows Magnus has been searching relentlessly, secretly, as they all have, in his wider scope of opportunity, to find a way to restore what Raziel took from her, from all of them, and he, too, won’t stop. 

“I still can’t believe I’d have a Parabatai if things had gone as they should have.” Izzy’s voice shivers, hurt written across her face, and Jace and Simon reach for her hands simultaneously while Alec puts a hand on Jace's shoulder, his other locking with one of Magnus'.

She smiles gingerly at them, taking one of Simon's and Jace's hands, squeezing them reassuringly.

“It’s only postponing the inevitable, she’ll come back to us.” 

Tears are in her eyes, but also bitter determination, love, and hope. And as Jace looks at every one of the people here he loves, whose eyes always show the truth, he finds new courage and strength, because hope and love are the forces that brought them all this far, lending a kind of power to them, no demon or angel possesses, one that will always conquer the darkness, one that will always bring them back together.


End file.
